The Israeli State Attorney's office has asked the South African Justice Ministry for help in an investigation of how and why Prime Minister Ariel Sharon received $1.5 million from a South African citizen, the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz daily reported on Tuesday.
The money recieved from South Africa was to serve as collateral for a loan Sharon's sons, Omri and Gilad, took out to pay back a company from which the Prime Minister received illegal campaign contributions during his primaries campaign for the Likud leadership, the report added. The state's written request implies that Sharon and his son Gilad deliberately deceived the State Comptroller and the police when they were questioned about how Sharon intended to repay the money, as ordered by the State Comptroller.
In October 2001, the Israeli State Comptroller issued a report on shell companies that allegedly financed Sharon's campaign for the party leadership in 1999. The suspicions against Sharon were that he violated the party financing law.
A police investigation learned that a South African man named Cyril Kern transferred $1.49 million to Gilad and Omri Sharon, on January 15, 2002, from a bank account in Austria, through the JP Morgan Bank in New York, and into the Sharon brothers' account. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
